Movable ladder constructions are known in prior art, in such applications such as fire engine trucks, utility trucks, airline passenger staircases, and other vehicle-mounted types. U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,766 describes a truck-mounted ladder rack to hold an extension ladder on a telephone truck. U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,720 describes ladders for use in picking fruit which are slidably mounted on a supporting vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 3,800,912 describes access equipment having a movable boom structure to which ladders are attached, all mounted on a supporting structure such as a vehicle.
A ladder truck for use in stores for transporting goods to display shelves is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,021. A wheeled truck is disclosed to which a stepladder is attached at one end in pivotal fashion. When the stepladder is raised, the ladder truck can be wheeled around between positions before the stepladder is once again lowered.
The typical folded ladder construction used in repairing, painting, and remodeling work must be repositioned as the work progresses. Repositioning the ladder is a burdensome task which increases the time required to complete the work by 20%-25% of the time otherwise needed. For small stepladders, the vehicle arrangements described in the prior art are not practical, since the cost of such designs is prohibitive.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a ladder construction which reduces the time required for repositioning by allowing manual movement without requiring the user to dismount from the ladder in each instance.